Reversals of Fortune

Photo By Fabrizio Conti

“His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:50–53 NIV).

These were the words spoken by the virgin Mary shortly after receiving the news from the angel Gabriel that she would miraculously bear a child who would bring about the fulfillment of God’s promises of deliverance and restoration to her people, Israel.

Mary’s proclamation has precedence in Israel’s sacred history recorded in Scripture. In the book of 1 Samuel, another woman named Hannah said much the same thing when her prayer for a child was answered. Hannah had been unable to conceive a child with her husband for some time. When her circumstances changed, she exclaimed:

“The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor” (1 Samuel 2:6–8 NIV).

This idea of God reversing fortunes—raising up those who are humbled not only “spiritually” but societally and bringing down those who hold the power—is a fairly common theme throughout the Bible. Indeed, Jesus himself declared that “the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16 NIV).

For those who know what it is like to be in a position of relative powerlessness and consequently deprived in some fashion of even basic needs that all human beings require—for those who experience injustice in one form or another, the claims being made by the likes of Mary, Hannah, and Jesus are surely hopeful.

However, is this theme of reversal merely an expression of “fighting fire with fire”? In other words, are these texts reinforcing a problematic system that necessarily has some people on top and some on the bottom, and simply switching the groups around? If so, one might ask whether that is, in the long run at least, not much help in seeking a world characterized by authentic justice.

On this matter, New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine remarks, “do we want a reversal of fortune, such that the previously privileged will face torment and the poor will enjoy power and wealth, or is this vision simply shifting deck chairs on the Titanic—same system, different suffering players? Should anyone be ‘exalted,’ and if such exaltation is necessary, what are the criteria?” (Levine, “The Gospel of Luke,” 41).

So how might those of us who believe that Scripture is an instrument of true liberation and justice begin to respond to Levine’s important challenge?

I would first emphasize here that these reversal texts are operating on the assumption that those to whom they refer in the power group—"the proud,” “the first,” etc.—are in some way abusing the power they have at the expense of the humbled group.

Hannah might point to her husband’s other wife who had children and who “kept provoking” the childless Hannah “in order to irritate her” (1 Samuel 1:6 NIV). Jesus might point to certain religious leaders within Israel who “plotted how they might kill him” without any justifiable cause for doing so (Matthew 12:14 NIV). Mary might point to the Roman Empire who conquered her people, stripping them of their freedom and imposing upon them crippling taxation that trapped most in poverty.

It should be observed that though the grave responsibilities entailed in possessing power and wealth are pervasively stated in the Bible, and thus also warnings of the consequences of their abuse, they are nevertheless nowhere portrayed as being inherently wrong in the hands of people.

Second, we should not assume that the respective stations of exaltation and abasement represent fixed groups of people following God’s reversal of fortunes any more than they were before. There is always the danger that the oppressed, once delivered from their oppression, may become themselves the oppressor.

The reversals envisioned always stand, therefore, as both a reassuring and cautionary proclamation to all people that God is staunchly opposed to power’s abuse, regardless from where it comes, and ultimately seeks to rescue those victimized by it.

But, moreover, the story need not be understood as ending for those who are brought low by God due to their misuse of privilege. The God of Scripture is boundless in love and forgiveness and desires to save those who are lost (see, for example, Luke chapter 15). Perhaps a central way God can save the abuser is to first remove from them the opportunity to oppress any longer.

Bringing down those that fall into this group may serve, then, an additional purpose. Namely, for them to finally discover how God can rightly raise them up again—alongside those they formerly oppressed.